Dwight Howard and the Brooklyn Nets have reportedly agreed to a buyout and now the Washington Wizards are rumored to have signed the center/power forward to a one-year deal after he cleared waivers.
Howard is one of two players reaching an agreement with the Wizards today as forward Jeff Green has also decided to join Washington after agreeing to a one-year $2.5 million deal.
In the offseason, the Charlotte Hornets decided to release Howard and traded him to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Timofey Mozgov and a second-round draft pick.
After the buyout Howard was quickly picked up by the Wizards who needed a big body after they traded center Marcin Gortat to the Los Angeles Clippers for point guard Austin Rivers.
Howard may not be able to help them offensively as much as earlier in his career, but he won’t need to as guards Bradly Beal and John Wall are the top two weapons for Washington. Although he won’t be able to take as many shots with his new team he will be expected to help them defensively with rebounds, blocks, and providing another big body in the paint to protect the rim.
Green, who is expected to come off the bench, will help their second unit right away as he’s a much better option coming off the bench than any of the options they had this past season. He improves their depth right away and could help them compete whenever one of their starting forwards needs a breather.
Last season, Green appeared in 78 games and made 13 starts for the Cavs as he averaged 10.8 points and 3.2 rebounds. During last year’s playoff run he averaged 7.7 points in 22 games with the Cavs.
As for Howard, he averaged 16.6 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 81 games with the Hornets last season.
Although the Wizards haven’t made too many moves on free agency, they have now addressed their two biggest weaknesses with these two signings and can look forward to further building their team to improve on their last year’s campaign when they reached the postseason as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference but lost in the first round to the Toronto Raptors in six games.
